Their brakes fade, clutches burn and chassis flex; they dig in, roll around and break traction at absurdly low speeds, but with great drama.

It was only in the closing stages when Paul's brakes faded slightly that he had to back off the chase.

The brakes are easy to handle and get a hard grip, even after a few hard braking sessions no fading is apparent.

2 [with adverbial] (With reference to film and television images) come or cause to come gradually into or out of view, or to merge into another shot: [no object]:fade into scenes of rooms strewn with festiveremains [with object]:some shots have to be faded in

Origin

Middle English (in the sense 'grow weak, waste away'; compare with fade away): from Old Frenchfader, from fade 'dull, insipid', probably based on a blend of Latinfatuus 'silly, insipid' and vapidus 'vapid'.

The early sense of fade was ‘grow weak, waste away’. The word comes from Old French fade ‘dull, insipid’, probably a blend of Latin fatuus ‘silly, insipid’ (source of E17th fatuous), and vapidus ‘vapid’ ( see vapour). The sense ‘lose freshness’ (faded colours) developed in English alongside the meaning ‘lose strength’.